Accused Jersey City killer just 24, but has long history with law

A Jersey City 24-year-old with a criminal past turned himself in last night to police, facing a murder charge for a fatal shooting Friday.

Daquan Mixson, accompanied by his attorney, turned himself in last night at about 8 p.m., Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Gene Rubino said. Mixson is charged with the fatal Friday shooting of 21-year-old Darius Dashawn Redmon. Redmon died Saturday.

This development ends the weekend hunt for a suspect police considered armed and dangerous. Mixson is currently being held at Hudson County jail on $1 million bail.

This is not the felon's first run-in with the law. Mixson is a reputed member of the 52 Hoover Street Gangsta Crips in Jersey City, whose previous offenses include running over a 6-year-old boy and dragging him for over 70 feet before fleeing the scene in July 2008.

After being in an induced coma for several weeks, the young boy, Jabari Cooley, miraculously survived. In that case, authorities tracked Mixson down in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and in June 2009 he pleaded guilty to assault by auto.

In September 2009, Mixson was among a dozen people indicted on various charges, including conspiring to commit four murders, as members of the 52 Hoover Street Gangsta Crips.

In September 2007, Mixson, then 17, and his brother filed an internal affairs complaint accusing police of using excessive force during an arrest on aggravated assault charges.

Today, Mixson is charged with the fatal shooting of Darius Dashawn Redmon, who police say was found unconscious in the back seat of a vehicle outside the Booker T. Washington housing complex, known as the home base of the Hoover Street Gangsta Crips, on Friday.

Police had entered the Booker T. complex to search for a man suspected of assaulting a cop when some 200 people interfered with their search.

According to the prosecutor's office, a vehicle pulled up about 11:30 p.m. Friday to the Jersey City Police Department's West District on Communipaw Avenue with three men who told police someone had been shot.

Redmon was unconscious in the back seat of the vehicle with an apparent gunshot wound to his head, the prosecutor's office said.

Police found Redmon with an apparent gunshot wound to his head, the prosecutor's office said, and pulled him out of the vehicle to administer CPR until Emergency Medical Services arrived and transported the victim to the Jersey City Medical Center in critical condition. Redmon was pronounced dead shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday, authorities said.

The investigation revealed that Redmon was shot while inside the vehicle in the area of the Booker T. Washington housing complex near Fremont and Colden streets in Jersey City.

Heavily-armed members of the Jersey City Emergency Services Unit descended yesterday afternoon upon a building at 16th and Coles street searching for a “shooting suspect,” according to police radio transmissions. Police cleared the area about 3 p.m. without making any arrests.

Mixson's uncle, Lance Mixson, was shot and killed on Jan. 9, 2013. No one has been charged in his murder, his sister, who is Daquan's mother, told The Jersey Journal this morning.

Anyone with information about the fatal shooting is asked to contact the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Unit at (201) 915-1345 or by email at hcpotips@hcpo.org. All contacts will be kept confidential.